The Zen Den

The first time I saw this place was entirely accidental. Taking a coastal workshop while new to photography, we were happily shooting the famous Kiwanda Keyhole (which has now sadly collapsed). Kevin McNeal, who was doing the teaching, suggested I move to another location for sunset.

"Just go up over this dune, and drop down the other side, and you can shoot across these cool cliffs. I'm going to need to stay down here with the rest of the workshop participants.".

"I'm ON IT!" I yell.

Up and over. And down. WAY down. I kept saying "WTF?" to myself. I didn't see any damned cliffs, and I certainly didn't see any sunset. In fact, it was getting dark. I finally reached the bottom, where the sea was rushing in, and walked around the corner to find this cave. It was angry and made it VERY clear that I wasn't supposed to be there. So I hoofed it back up the dunes, cursing my chocolate chip cookie addiction for slowing me down so much, and went over the other side.

FINALLY found the cliffs, which I proceeded to shoot in entirely the wrong direction. Exhausted, I struggled mightily up the dunes, burping up cookies with every step.

Finally Steve Turner came to rescue me. Exhausted, I proclaimed that he had saved my life. He pointed to the town below and said "Why didn't you just go down there and call us?"

Oh.

I've returned here over the years, curious since my first encounter, and finally got something that I didn't immediately delete from my hard drive.